Glitter Baby

“Which is why you’re making the eggs.” She pulled out a carton and set it on the counter for him along with a stainless steel bowl. Then she grabbed a grapefruit, dropped it on the cutting board, and severed it with one sharp thwack.

“Careful there.”

“I’m practicing for bigger and better things.” She gestured toward a bottom drawer. “If Bird Dog needs an apron, he can find one in there. Ignore the pink ruffle.”

“You’re all heart.”

Neither of them spoke again until they were settled across from each other at the harvest table. She could barely swallow her toast. In the clear light of a new day, the notion that he might sign with her seemed even more far-fetched, but she had to know for sure. She took a sip of coffee. “Don’t you have an incredibly expensive house somewhere in the Village?”

“Yeah, but too many people bother me there, so I sometimes disappear. That’s one of the things I wanted to talk to you about. Can we work something out with your attic?”

“My attic?”

“Your office manager showed it to me last night when she was giving me the tour. It’s a great space-private, self-contained. I need a place where I can hide out for a while and work. A place no one will think to look for me.”

She couldn’t believe it. Jake didn’t want her as an agent. He wanted a landlady! Disappointment choked her. She threw down her napkin. “Are you so used to people kissing your butt that you think I’ll do it, too?” She rose from her chair and pointed toward the door. “You’re not living in my house. Ever. Now get out. I’m sick of looking at you.”

He swiped at his plate with a triangle of toast. “I’m going to take that as a definite maybe.”

“Don’t even try to be cute. You’ve-”

“Let me finish. I told you last night that I had a business deal. Sit down and eat those excellent scrambled eggs while we talk about it.”

She sat down, but she didn’t touch her eggs.

He pushed his plate back and wiped his mouth with his napkin. “I can’t keep going on like this. The Caliber picture’s done, and I’m taking six months off so I can start writing again. If I don’t work this thing through now, I never will. I want you to represent me.”

She couldn’t believe she’d heard him right. He wanted her to be his agent? Her spirits soared. Their past relationship would make this the most difficult challenge she could possibly face, but she was tough enough to handle it. She struggled to pull herself together. “I’d be glad to represent you. I know I can make your life easier. As you might have heard, I’m offering total celebrity management to an elite group of clients. I can handle all your business and legal affairs, negotiate film deals, take care of publicity-”

He waved her off. “I have good people doing all that.”

She went absolutely still. “Then exactly what are you offering me?”

“I want you to handle everything I write.”

She stared at him. “Big deal.”

“If you want my name on your client roster, this is the way to get it.”

“You haven’t written anything since Eclipse!” She wanted to scream. “Your name as a writer on my client roster won’t get me anything but snickers.” She snatched up her plate and took it to the sink.

“You’re the one who blocked me, kiddo. Now all you have to do is unblock me.”

The plate broke as she set it down too hard. “Why do you keep saying that?”

“The problem started when you came along.”

“That’s no answer.”

His chair scraped the floor. “It’s all the answer you’re going to get.”

She didn’t even try to hide her animosity. “And how am I supposed to unblock you? On my back?”

“If that’s what works for you.”

Before she could take a swing at him, he detoured toward the coffeepot. “I need some help working through the block. Whatever went wrong happened when we were making Eclipse.”

She threw the broken plate into the trash. “You don’t have to write. You sure don’t need the money.”

“Writing is what I do, Flower. Acting is satisfying, and it’s made me rich, but it’s writing that lets me breathe.” He turned away, as if confessing even that small amount compromised him. “I won’t be living in your pocket. All I want is privacy. And I don’t need to tell you that if I start writing again, your agency will pick up a fat piece of change.”

“That’s a big ‘if.’ And why do you have to write in my house?”

He shrugged off her question. “I just do.”

The same old Jake. He dangled little pieces of himself in front of her, then snatched them back before she could get a good look. But even as a dozen venomous thoughts raced through her mind, she knew he’d boxed her in. She had to take the chance, despite the risks she could see all too clearly. If only she hadn’t planted the stories about the two of them…She imagined people’s smirks if word got out that she’d committed herself to representing a writer who didn’t write anymore. Everyone would say that Jake was only letting her use his name because they were sleeping together. They’d point out that he didn’t trust her to handle his film deals, just a writing career that had gone sour years ago. She’d look like a woman trying to build a business from her bedroom.

But what if she could get him to start writing again? What if she could break through that block and get him to produce another Koranda play? She wouldn’t have to worry about gossip then, or about her money running out. It was a gamble she couldn’t pass up. At the same time, she had to make sure she wouldn’t be paying a personal price for once again getting involved with the man who’d hurt her so badly.

The gossip began two days later, but not about Jake. On Monday afternoon as Fleur was about to leave the office to have lunch with a talented new singer she hoped to woo, she received a phone call from a network vice- president she’d gotten to known.

“There’s some gossip floating around I think you should hear about,” he said. “Somebody’s going out of their way to remind people of those broken modeling contracts you left behind when you fled the country.”

She rubbed her eyes and tried to sound unconcerned. “That’s old news. Isn’t there anything better to gossip about?”

“It’s lousy PR for a woman trying to start a business based on client trust.”

He didn’t need to spell it out for her. The implication was clear. If she’d broken contracts before, she’d do it again. She could think of only one reason for those stories to resurface now. Alexi had made his next move.

The young singer didn’t show up for lunch, a message Fleur had no trouble interpreting. She got back to the office in time to take a call from Olivia Creighton.

“I’ve been hearing some terrible stories about you, Fleur. I’m sure none of them are true, and you know how I adore you, but after what happened with poor Doris Day and all her money, a woman can’t be too careful. I’m not comfortable with instability.”

“Of course not.” Fleur thought of the six antique Baccarat goblets and case of Pouilly Fuisse Olivia had sent her just the week before to celebrate her contract for Dragon’s Bay. Now the celebration was over. She made a lunch date for Olivia to meet David Bennis With his leather elbow patches and his smelly pipe, he radiated stability better than anyone, and Fleur hoped he could reassure Olivia, but as she headed for David’s office, she didn’t like the feeling that she was once again using someone else to solve her problems.

Later that day, she found Michel in the second floor of a converted factory in Astoria, where weary seamstresses were working on the garments for his collection. He had less than seven weeks left, and he was exhausted from the strain of trying to get everything together so quickly. She wished she didn’t have to add to his worries, but she couldn’t postpone telling him what was happening any longer. By now, Alexi understood exactly how important the success of Michel’s collection was to her, and she didn’t need a crystal ball to figure out where he’d try to strike next.

Michel straightened the scarf she’d tied at the neck of her white cashmere sheath. He had to reach up to do it because she was wearing the stiletto heels that were a standard part of her business wardrobe ever since she’d realized her height sometimes worked to her advantage. She told him about the missing invitations and the fire.